11-07-17 – Harriers 0 Derby County 4

Derby dominate as class shows

Harriers were tonight well beaten by their championship opponents, Derby County, who were at near full strength.

County opened the scoring with Dave Nugent finishing well moments after a Liam Truslove free kick was watched wide by Scott Carson.

In truth, apart from the odd burst forward by Messrs Sam Austin and Manny Sonupè, that’s as good as it got for Harriers as the visitors made it 2-0 after 17 minutes with the trialist keeper making a hash of closing down the attacker leaving Craig Bryson cleaning up the mess and firing in.

John Eustace’s former team knocked it well and a sublime third followed. Marcus Olsson with a deep ball into Chris Martin who finished first time deliciously.

The trialist brothers got a run out in the second half and the Harriers number 19 was a diminutive ball player who looked to get involved but was often wasteful.

It was however a better half for Harriers with the keeper saving well from Nick Blackman, Matej Vydra and Darren Bent. Blackman was tenacious down the flank and held a ball up for Bent who got between the centre backs to head home for 4-0 after 71 minutes .

In front of 1078, of whom 488 were from Derby, the game fizzled out with Derby looking more likely, as expected and eventually, that was all she wrote.